To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. Breezy, with a north wind 6 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Monday Night: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Low around 62. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
The Flagler County Commission meets at 9 a.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 E. Moody Boulevard, Building 2, Bunnell. Access meeting agendas and materials here. The five county commissioners and their email addresses are listed here. Meetings stream live on the Flagler County YouTube page.
The Flagler County Commission meets in workshop at at 1 p.m. to discuss the county adminisrator and county attorney evaluation process and its search for a new administrator, at the Government Services Building, 1769 E. Moody Boulevard, Building 2, Bunnell. Access meeting agendas and materials here. The five county commissioners and their email addresses are listed here. Meetings stream live on the Flagler County YouTube page.
The Beverly Beach Town Commission meets at 6 p.m. at the meeting hall building behind the Town Hall, 2735 North Oceanshore Boulevard (State Road A1A) in Beverly Beach. See meeting announcements here.
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County: The AARP Foundation’s Tax Aide provides free tax preparation services at six locations in Palm Coast, Flagler Beach and Flagler County through April 15, but you must make an appointment first and fill out paperwork. To do both, go here.
Juxtapositions: Here’s a picture of the statue of Mao in a square in Shenyang, a city of 9 million in northeast China:
Here’s a rendering of Trump’s statue at his future allegedly presidential library in Miami, from a clip of the video he released last week:
Nothing else needs be said, though I challenge you to find one discernibly Black, Asian or Hispanic face amid the thousands of figures shown.
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
April 2026
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County
In Court: Anne Mae Demegillo Arraignment
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 10-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Flagler County Library Board of Trustees
Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club
Flagler Beach Planning and Architectural Review Board
Palm Coast City Council Meeting
Bunnell Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board
Hammock Community Association Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County
Public Safety Coordinating Council Meeting
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting
Conversations in Democracy
For the full calendar, go here.
One had to admit that the Shah had the most dreadful taste in furniture. French baroque chairs nestled against glass and steel tables while the most grotesque urns-mutated by some silversmith’s black magic into ugly peahens -sat upon desks of delicately carved and mosaic-encrusted wood. Walls of cut glass with a powdering of dust upon them suggested a British cinema of the 1930s. This was how the Shah and his wife left their palace in January 1979 when they set off for a “holiday” and eternal exile.
–From Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East (2005).
Pogo says
Juxtapositions
100% 👍👍👍👍👍
Trump’s (and our) obituary
https://www.google.com/search?q=iran+underground+military
You fool, you’ve killed us!
— Hunt for Red October, and many others
“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”
— Winston Churchill
https://www.google.com/search?q=quotes+about+survival+equalling+victory
Ray W. says
ERCOT, Texas’s quasi-governmental electricity regulatory and operations agency, maintains a data site for levels of electricity demand and supply, updated every five minutes.
Here are electricity demand figures gleaned at random from the site:
Yesterday at 6:50 am CT: 41,822 MWs.
Yesterday at 12:30 pm CT: 46,211 MWs.
Yesterday at 8:45 pm CT: 47,543 MWs.
Today at 11:00 am CT: 47,690 MWs.
When every one of Texas’ more than 1,400 electricity generating plants are available for service, more than 105,000 MWs of power can be generated. On August 20, 2024, at one time, ERCOT power plants were generating a record 85,931 MWs of electricity, meaning that the ERCOT grid has a current built-in reserve capacity of around 20,000 MWs over record demand. But Texas electricity demand is expected to grow, perhaps significantly, primarily because of buildout of new data centers and a growing population base, and supply is expected to drop because certain currently operating power plants are planned for retirement. Thus, a considerable number of new power plants will be needed.
According to an EIA report, 155 GWs of solar power are planned for addition to the ERCOT grid, plus another 35 GWs of wind power, over the next few years. 58 GWs of natural gas additions to the grid are in the proposal stage.
I chose today to comment about this subject because Texas weather yesterday was mild, windy and cloudy with some rain. Today, the winds have lessened and statewide cloud cover has receded. All told, as the above-listed figures show, April weather in Texas places comparatively little demand (significantly less than half) on total electricity generation capacity. That means that, of all of the available power plants, if ERCOT intends to provide power at the cheapest cost to customers, only the most efficient and least costly power plants are relied upon to meet April’s limited electricity demand. Let’s face facts. Whenever winter or summer extreme weather events drive high demand levels, only then will the most expensive and least efficient power plants be brought online. The rest of the year, these “peaker” power plants sit idle.
Here are the percentages of electricity supply to the ERCOT grid for solar, wind, gas and coal during the four selected times, yesterday and today:
6:49 am CT, yesterday:
Solar: 0.0%.
Wind: 20.1%.
Gas: 46.3%.
Coal: 17.2%.
12:31 pm CT, yesterday:
Solar: 47.6%.
Wind: 26.2%.
Gas: 17.3%.
Coal: 7.5%.
8:46 pm CT, yesterday:
Solar: 0.0%.
Wind: 19.5%.
Gas: 46.7%.
Coal: 9.0%.
11:06 am CT, today.
Solar: 65.1%.
Wind: 11.7%.
Gas: 16.3%.
Coal: 6.8%.
From these figures, it seems beyond contestation that whatever the amount of solar power generated, all of solar’s actual generating capacity is purchased first. When solar generating capacity stops, natural gas power and coal is ramped up as needed.
The question will be battery storage capacity. If battery storage capacity is cheaper to install and operate than natural gas and coal, then battery storage will slowly displace those two sources of power from the ERCOT grid.
In a February 2026 report, ERCOT estimates that between 26 and 41 GWs of new battery energy storage systems (BESS) will be added to the 13.9 GWs of January 2026 BESS capacity by the end of 2029, suggesting that battery storage costs are already lower than the costs of operating older natural gas and coal-fired plants.
Ray W. says
Bloomberg reports that five commercial vessels entered the Strait of Hormuz from the Gulf of Oman and 11 ships entered from the Persian Gulf.
Jim says
Just gotta say, our president continues to find new lows. Don’t ever underestimate the guy. He hasn’t hit bottom yet.
His Easter Sunday post:
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy b*****ds, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”
“Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Why, even Marjorie Taylor Green said”…everyone in Trump’s administration who claims to be Christian “needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God,” and “intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit,” Greene wrote on X.”
It takes a lot to offend Marjorie.
Well, I’m glad I’m paying $3.43/gallon of gas but still don’t know why. One day Trump says we’ve “won” the war. Sunday he’s going to put Iran in “hell”. I’m so confused. Also, enjoyed the reference to Allah on Easter. Ol’ Trump is truly a Christian with a strong understanding of Faith!
Anyway, let’s all stay tuned and see the fireworks! If Trump does what he’s threatening, it’s war crimes. And if he doesn’t, I’ll guarantee you he’ll say Iran agreed to some BS that they will deny and no one can verify. I’m telling you, the guy plays 4D chess while the rest of us play checkers. MAGA should be proud. Let’s hurry up and get religion into the school systems, right????
Skibum says
ICE has arrested the newlywed wife of a U.S. Army soldier on an American military base! ICE now says they will have armed agents stationed outside the venue at the graduation ceremony for U.S. Marines who have just completed their basic training, to arrest the marines’ family members who are not U.S. citizens!
What better way to thank and honor those who are in this nation’s military!? Thank you for your service… now we are taking your family members and putting them in detention awaiting deportation. Semper Fi!
Sherry says
A Must Watch: